Serve these Oat and Nut Fig Bars for breakfast, as a snack, or warm with a side of homemade vanilla ice cream

Want to Save This Recipe?

Enter your email & I’ll send it straight to your inbox. And you’ll get new recipes & tips each week.

Save Recipe

My relationship with technology borders on a constant love/hate status. The truth is, despite living in 2015, much of the world of technology still confuses me. This is where Dustin beautifully complements our working relationship (well, really just one of many ways)–he’s the technology guru! Live Simply just wouldn’t be the beautiful and functional place it is today without that amazing man.

Serve these Oat and Nut Fig Bars for breakfast, as a snack, or warm with a side of homemade vanilla ice cream

Today has been one of those “I don’t understand you, Mr. Computer!” technology days. I’ve actually written the words for this post twice now, both times the words have mysteriously disappeared from existence. My first reaction was to throw my arms in the air and question my very involvement with a computer and the online world. Since that didn’t seem to help, I decided this may just be a sign. A reminder that it’s okay to let real food speak for itself. Instead of rewriting my story about our home remodel or my love for Fig Newtons as child, today, I’m actually going to be quiet. I know, strange times!

Serve these Oat and Nut Fig Bars for breakfast, as a snack, or warm with a side of homemade vanilla ice cream

Serve these Oat and Nut Fig Bars for breakfast, as a snack, or warm with a side of homemade vanilla ice cream

Here’s the thing about real food. Real food is about basic ingredients that beautifully come together to create flavor and textures processed food can’t ever mimic. Real food doesn’t need cartoon characters, commercials, or special words. Real food is naturally good and beautiful–no convincing needed. So let’s bask in the beauty of simple ingredients. While I love sharing life and stories here on Live Simply, the food and recipes often times speak for themselves, as fresh, real food should.

Today’s recipe consists of simple ingredients you can find in your pantry paired with fresh, seasonal figs. These ingredients are blended together to create a crumbly bar that is naturally sweet, gluten-free, and irresistible! Simplicity and beauty, my friend. Let’s behold…

Serve these Oat and Nut Fig Bars for breakfast, as a snack, or warm with a side of homemade vanilla ice cream

Serve these Oat and Nut Fig Bars for breakfast, as a snack, or warm with a side of homemade vanilla ice cream

Gluten-Free Oat and Nut Fig Crumble Bars
5 from 1 vote

Gluten-Free Oat and Nut Fig Crumble Bars

Today’s recipe consists of simple ingredients you can find in your pantry paired with fresh, seasonal figs. These ingredients are blended together to create a crumbly bar that is naturally sweet, gluten-free, and irresistible! Simplicity and beauty, my friend. Let’s behold…
Kristin Marr
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Cooling10 minutes
Total Time40 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 9 -12 bars, depending on size
Calories 413 kcal

Ingredients

Crumble Crust and Topping:

Fig Filling:

  • 2 cups halved fresh figs Brown or Turkish are my favorite, about 1-16 oz. package
  • 4 medjool dates The dates should be moist not dried out. If the dates are dry, soak them in water for 15-20 minutes before use., remove the seeds
  • 1 TB lemon juiced (about 2juice)
  • 2 TB honey
  • 2 TB arrowroot flour starch An organic non-GMO corn starch may be used as a substitute.

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350F.
  • In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the the rolled oats, toasted walnuts, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Pulse the dry ingredients until the oats and nuts resemble a crumbly flour. Add the cubed butter and continue to pulse until the "flour" begins to to stick together--about 30-40 seconds. Pour the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the remaining wet ingredients to the flour mixture: honey, egg, and vanilla extract. Stir the ingredients until combined.
  • For the Filling: Wipe out the food processor, if needed. Add the figs, dates, lemon juice, honey, and arrowroot starch/flour. Pulse until the ingredients form a paste.
  • Pour half the the crumble mixture into parchment-lined 9x9 baking dish (allow a small amount of excess parchment to rise up two sides of pan to lift the bars from the pan after baking). Press the crumbly mixture down into the pan with your hands. Pour the fig filling over the top. Drop the remaining crumble over the top of the filling.
  • Bake for 25-30 until the top of the crumble begins to brown (not burn!). Remove the crumble from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes--don't skip this step!
  • After 10 minutes, lift the sides of the parchment from the pan, pulling the crumble out of the pan. Cut the crumble into squares. Serve warm, or allow to cool and store in an air-tight container in the fridge. The bars should be soft and crumbly, but firm enough to form individual bars.

Notes

Find my favorite kitchen essentials, here. Inspired by Sarah Britton's Walnut Fig Bars from her cookbook, My New Roots.

Nutrition

Calories: 413kcalCarbohydrates: 42gProtein: 7gFat: 26gSaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 38mgSodium: 142mgPotassium: 349mgFiber: 4gSugar: 24gVitamin A: 295IUVitamin C: 1.4mgCalcium: 78mgIron: 1.9mg
Tried this recipe?Let me know how it was!

Toasting the Walnuts: To toast the walnuts, place the walnuts in the 9×9 baking dish, and then in the 350F oven for 15 minutes. Check on the walnuts around the 10 minute mark, just to make sure they are toasting and not burning. Remove the walnuts from the oven once they are fragrant (15 minutes).

Serve Oat and Nut Fig Bars for breakfast, as a snack, or warm with a side of homemade vanilla ice cream.

Serve these Oat and Nut Fig Bars for breakfast, as a snack, or warm with a side of homemade vanilla ice cream

More Real Food You May Like:

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

4-Ingredient Perfectly Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

Homemade Chocolate Pudding

60-Second Homemade Chocolate Pudding

One-Pot Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables

One-Pot Chicken, Rice and Vegetables

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

6 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    This is my fist time tasting fresh figs. Is it just me or do fresh figs taste starchy, mild and somewhat green?
    I really liked the crust, but I don’t seem to be a fan of figs so maybe I should try Plums next time.
    Thanks for another great recipe.

    1. Hey Bethany, Yes I agree, figs definitely have a starchier taste and texture, particularly when blended. I would love to hear about making this with plums–that sounds amazing! Let me know if you try it.

  2. Hi I’m loving the sound of this recipe and it looks amazing too but I’m on a calorie contoled diet at the minute so would you have any idea how many calories per bite they would be ?? Just want something nice to be able to snack on and not worry that I’m eating to many calories in something small eaither way even if they are high my kids would love them so regardless I’ll be making Them thanks in advance Beth x

    1. Hey Bethany, I’m not sure about the calorie count for this recipe (the walnuts add lots of healthy fat, so I’m sure the count is on the high end). My Fitness Pal is a great source for counting calories (and other nutritional information) and it’s free: https://www.myfitnesspal.com/. I know a few blogger friends who use this site for calculating blog recipes.

      I hope you love the bars :)! They go fast in our house!

  3. I am surprised to see that you talk about oats as being gluten free. Oats as wheat and barley and rye contain gluten. It is imposible for this recipe to be gluten free. It could cause a lot of damage to people with celíac desease! I am one of those. There is no such thing as oats with no gluten!

    1. Hey Laura, Non-contaminated, pure oats are gluten-free. Oats are not grain-free, which is where the confusion may be coming from.You need to purchase oats that are “pure” gluten-free oats, like Bob’s Red Mill brand. Here’s some more information: http://www.thekitchn.com/the-oat-conundrum-are-oats-glu-137074/.

      Here’s another article: http://www.cureceliacdisease.org/archives/faq/do-oats-contain-gluten
      “Oats are not related to gluten-containing grains such as wheat, barley and rye. They don’t contain gluten, but rather proteins called avenins that are non-toxic and tolerated by most celiacs (perhaps less than 1% of celiac patients show a reaction to a large amount of oats in their diets).”